St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-06-24
A FUNERAL IN A TENEMENT,
The transformations Service Over
the Death of Baby.

was in Rose street, Just around the cor
ner. The ribbon was limp and old, and
hung In lifelesS way against the worn
panels of the door. She stepped back
to note the effect, and another girl about
the same age came out from a door in
the lower hallway and joined her. The
two little ones were the only signs OF
life about the great building that looked
black and for5idding with its range of
grated fire-eseapes giving it the air OF a
barred prison. The second conner stared
at the first girl with bold eyes tor "a mo-
ment and said, pointing to the fiutteriDg
ribbons:
"What did you do that for?''
"Baby is dead"
"Do you live in this house,?
Eyes; on the fourth floor"
''Huh," with sniff of contempt. "We
live on the first floor and we've got
baby carriage" Then in more con-
ciliatory way: 'sMay l come up and
see it?"
II guess so," and the two children,
hand in hand, went up the dark steps to
the little room fronting on the street,
where the mother and the woman of the
next room were preparing the child for
burial. 1t was bloOdlesS little thing,
the piece of clay the woman fondled in
that lingering way they have
with those they love. The
mother seemed jealous of the atten-
ton her friend showed the child. She
could not bear to have other hands
touch the little thing. No other hands
but hers should smooth the pillow for
its last sleep. There was no wild out
burst of weeping on her part, and, be-
yOnd certain querulouSneSS,n no demon
Stration of affection. The mother did
not even cry. She was too used to Suf-
fering for that, She talked reminiS-
Gently of the bundle of white on the
bed. She told how she never expected
to raise it; that it had always been thin
and sickly; that it was the best child in
spite of all that the world had ever
seen; that she knew it could never
and little details that only mother
could remember and repeat. And every
now and then she would begin again
and go over it's peculiaritieS,
FINDING SOME NEW CHARM TO TELL OF.
The other woman was sympathetic
and receptive, petting the mother and
calling her ''Dearie" and ''My darlin'"
and fitting around the room putting
things to rights with an air of pTOprie-
torShip that would have been holly re-
Sented at any other time. The two
been great enemies and had fought roy
ally over the petty privileges of the
fourth floor hallway. But all that was
forgotten and laid aside now. Pretty
soon young man with weeks growth
of beard and furred silk hat came in
softly without knocking at the door. He
said he was the undertaken. Nobody
knew how he had found out about the
death. He had a book with pictures of
collins in it. He stepped on tiptoe across
the room and asked In Subdued voice
whether tomorrow morning would suit
for the funeral. Then he said that for
S14 one could get beautiful caSket. He
always called his collins caSketS. The
neighbor took him aside and conferred
with him, finally getting the S14 caSket
for S11. Then he went away, after leav-
ing receipt for the IS cash that had
been paid on inStallment.
The mother took the cold form of her
child in her arms and rocked it as she
had done so often in life. 1t had long,
white gown, with bit of lace down the
front. She took wisp of pink ribbon
and fastened it at the baby'S throat.
The neighbors protested that she must
not do that; it would never do. But the
mother persisted, and the bit OF bright
color remained.
The husband came home from work at
the usual hour, and did not grumble at
the cold supper that was spread for him.
He kissed his wife in a way that he had
not done since they were married.
THEY WE'RE a LOVING COUPLE,
full Of the trueSt affection for each ether,
but the affection did not often find out
ward expression. He sat with his wife
for half an hour, and then feeling him.
self in the way went down and joined
the group on the stoop. She did not
care to leave the room. He was work
went off with his tools as usual the next
morning. He kissed the mother of the
little one again before he left. The
woman across the hall came in early
and put things to rights. Then she dis
appeared for little space and returned,
dressed in a newer gown of black.
She brought bunch of OX-eyed daisies
with her and put them in the baby's
hands. The little girl who had tied the
white ribbon that served as crepe to the
front door-knob, came up wondering
and felt of the flowers. Then she took
one for herself. The neighbor and the
woman quietly slipping the bit of pink
ribbon from the shroud. But the quick
eyes of the mother saw it and would not
have the child deprived of the bit of
color. 1t had always loved the bright
string she pleaded. So the pink knot
rested there.
A young minister came-he was
hard! more than boy-and read a
chapter from the Bible and said few
words of consolation in German. There
were ten or twelve persons in the room.
He prayed :, for the bit of clay
in the coffin. Then the under
faLnr'S man tonly tbn onff;,,
in his arms and carried it down to the
hack that stood waiting at the door.
The mother cried softly to herself
during the services, and her little girl
stood by her and stared at the minister.
There was no hearSe, and only one car
riage. The man put the little coffin on
the front seat of the hack, the mother
and the little girl and the neighbor who
had been so kind to her got in with it,
one of the group waiting on the side
walk slammed the door, and the carriage
Cypress Hill cemetery. Nothing was
said at the grave by any one. They
took the little box and put it in a great
grave with half hundred boxes of the
same kind of precious dust that had been
already laid away to rest.
In the afternoon the three mourners
came home. The mother went to her
room and the little girl again stood on
tip-toe at the door to unite the fiutter-
ing white. She took the ribbons up
stairs, folded them carefully and put
them back in the box where they had
been at first. They were the ribbons
that her mother had worn the day she
was married.
Sarah's Neglected Manners.
Detroit Free Press.
Up in the mountains about Marietta,
Ga we came ACROSS a tall harnfootod